DIY ALBUM ART - new book by J. Namdev Hardisty

this is a pretty awesome new book by J. Namdev Hardisty about the aesthetic of the DIY punk and hardcore records of the 1990's. after searching for a few months to try and find this book locally, i gave up last week and just ordered it from amazon. i knew i would be pretty stoked on this book not only because i love the art of the punk and hardcore movement, but also because this is a visual chronicle of the era that i was introduced to when i was first discovering this music scene back in the summer of 1994. that said, this book far exceeded my expectations.... a slick and stunning presentation of some of the best artifacts from the hay day of DIY record art. of course i didn't know it at the time, but that really was the hay day for this style of "need-driven aesthetics". once home computers became affordable in the late 90's and early 2000's people stopped making records with their hands and things got a bit lazy looking. what's even worse is that it didn't occur to me how far we've drifted away from this visual style until i was flipping thru this book, seeing page after page of screened, hand stamped, and glued on cover art. check out the pics of some of my favs and then go find the book, you won't be sorry!